Lufthansa demands hundreds of thousands of euros from Last Generation

Climate activists from the Last Generation group disrupt traffic at the airports in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin with several actions in the summer and fall. Numerous flights and thousands of passengers were affected. According to a report, Lufthansa is now demanding compensation from the activists.

On behalf of all Lufthansa subsidiaries, the airline Eurowings is demanding compensation totaling 740,000 euros from climate activists of the Last Generation for their blockade actions at several German airports, according to a media report. The newspaper Bild am Sonntag ("Bams") reports that some of the accused have already been served with demands for payment.

According to the report, it concerns disruptive actions at Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin airports. According to the report, 57 Lufthansa Group flights with 8,500 passengers were affected by a protest action in Hamburg alone on July 13, with Lufthansa claiming 400,000 euros in damages for the incident there. Ten members of the Last Generation group had cut open the airport fence and rode bicycles towards the tarmac. According to the Federal Police, four of them had stuck to the access roads near the runways.

Ten of the accused have been served with letters of demand for payment in view of the Hamburg protests. Lufthansa is also demanding compensation for protest actions at Düsseldorf Airport on the same day with 24 affected flights - as well as for an action in November 2022 at the capital's Berlin-Brandenburg Airport with 35 affected flights. For the action in Düsseldorf, compensation of 220,000 euros is being sought. For the protest at Berlin Airport, six defendants are said to have already received demands for payment of 120,000 euros.

Wissing in favor of tightening the Aviation Security Act

Transport Minister Volker Wissing announced in the article that, in view of the incidents, he wanted to advocate a tightening of the Aviation Security Act. He was in agreement with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, also of the FDP, on this. "Blockades of airports with the aim of disrupting operations there far exceed the limits of legitimate protest. These are not minor offenses either," said Wissing. Stricter penalties should be introduced as soon as possible.

The Last Generation has been demonstrating and protesting for more climate protection with road blockades and other actions since the beginning of 2022. Recently, there have been actions at symbols of the Christmas season. Christmas trees were sprayed with orange paint in several German cities. In Berlin, a large Christmas tree in front of the Bundesrat near Potsdamer Platz was hit. Two demonstrators distributed the paint from fire extinguishers and allowed themselves to be filmed and photographed.

Berlin examines classification as a criminal organization

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was also sprayed with paint beforehand. According to the Berlin real estate management, the damage amounted to 115,000 euros. The cleaning work was costly. Numerous investigations and trials are underway against members of the group, many of whom have already been convicted.

These actions have contributed to a renewed investigation in Berlin into whether the Letzte Generation group should be classified as a criminal organization. In her view, the group's "more serious crimes" prompted Attorney General Margarete Koppers to commission the investigation. In the event of a conviction for forming a criminal organization, harsher sentences would be possible in comparison - possibly up to five years in prison.